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After initial struggle, woman gets rare Bombay blood group for surgery at GH
The doctors at a government hospital faced an unusual challenge while treating a 46-year-old housewife from Kumbakonam for an arterial injury, as she belonged to the ‘Bombay blood group’. With low awareness on this blood group and its rarity, they initially struggled to get blood. Eventually, the crisis was solved after four donors turned up, helping them save her life.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
The woman had dislocated her left knee after she fell at her home in Kumbakonam. She was taken to a local hospital and underwent a procedure. However, she continued to have reduced sensation and pain in her leg.
During further evaluation, the doctors found that there was absence of blood flow to the left leg and an arterial injury was suspected.
She was brought to the Emergency Ward at Stanley Medical College Hospital, said a doctor there, adding that the case was taken over by the Department of Vascular Surgery.
After an evaluation, it was confirmed that there was no blood flow to her left leg. The patient was also anaemic with a Hb count of 5.2g/dl.
The patient needed a blood transfusion, but tests revealed that she belonged to Bombay group, a rare group with an incidence of only one in 10,000 people. The blood bank did not have stock, and it was challenging to find donors, said a doctor.
“Donors were mobilised using Bombay blood group donor contacts from our blood bank donor registry. We also tried to reach them by announcing the requirement through FM radio.
Following this, four donors – M Jagadish from Tiruvanmiyur, Arun Prasath from Kodambakkam, Udhayakumar R from Old Washermanpet and V Sudhakar from Poonamallee – came forward to donate. We managed to transfuse adequate units of blood to the patient. After this, she was taken for the surgery,” the doctor said, adding that the patient’s life was saved as a result.
As the blood group is rare, with only one in 10,000 people in the country, it often requires Good Samaritans from other states to travel to Tamil Nadu to donate when such emergency arises. In one such case in the recent past, a 34-year-old man from Bengaluru had rushed to the rescue of a pregnant woman who was admitted at the Woman and Child Hospital in Egmore last December.
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